Social tenants frustrated by delays for repairs

A social housing tenant whose home has damp and cracks in the wall has said she has "given up" asking for help after waiting months for issues to be fixed.

Mother-of-one Shannon Shell and her partner Declan Askew said they had experienced a series of problems at their property in the estate in St Peter Port, Guernsey.

"You give up about it because you know it's going to take forever," said Shell, adding: "They don't help."

Guernsey Committee for Housing President Steve Williams admitted the committee needed to provide a better service for tenants but he said additional funding for maintenance was needed.

An attempt to increase the amount of money spent maintaining States houses in the last political term was put forward by former deputy Peter Roffey but the proposal failed.

Deputy Williams has now requested an extra £795,00 for the maintenance of social housing as he said the budget had dropped in the last decade from £10.9m to £9.9m last year.

Askew said his parent's property on the same estate had similar issues with damp.

"We were just told to open windows," he said.

"Then we found out it was a leak in the roof. It actually made my brother and me move out there for a little while."

Another social housing tenant the BBC spoke to who did not want to be named said she had to wait 18 months for someone to fix a leak in her roof which was causing water to enter her bedroom.

She said she was still waiting for someone to fix her fence as it was dangerous for children to play near. Another resident on the same road raised a similar issue.

Kylie Roussel, who lives on Skins Lane, said she had had very few problems with her property except for an issue with her outside toilet.

"My husband did phone up a while ago and asked for a replacement, but nothing ever happened," she said.

"The only thing they did was replace the window in the shed and that's full of condensation because it wasn't done properly."

Amy, another resident in the St Peter Port estate, said her property was generally good but there were issues with the windows.

"It's freezing in this house in the winter, they do try and maintain it, but things like the child locks on the windows don't work," she said.

She said her downstairs windows were "about to fall out" but crews "came around and just put some sealant on".

Deputy Williams said the lack of investment meant his committee had been forced to use contractors who had longer waiting times in exchange for lower prices.

"We're not doing certain jobs, we're putting stuff off," he said.

"You've got to look after your home, your property, otherwise in the long run it will be worse and we'll end up spending more money."

He said the committee "want to do a heck of a lot more" but "there's obviously a limit and everyone's asking for money".

"It's difficult times and we're trying to make the best use of that money," he said.

"The staff work really, really hard to obviously make every pound count but we do need to look after the properties and we do need to provide a better service for the tenants."

Debate on the 2027 budget starts on Tuesday next week and there are 30 proposals to change it including attempts to introduce a free bus service and create new benefits.

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